The Climb
by Mel-void-Num
Summary: [[My first fic please be gentle but criticism is welcome]] (AU) When Henry visits Joey after 30 years of not speaking to one another. Joey tosses Henry into the studio. Forced to go thought hundreds of loops he finally breaks free, but is changed as a result. Now he must escape, but he isn't alone. (Full summary is in the chapter)
1. Chapter 1

Bendy and the Ink Machine and anything related does not belong to me

Joeys Concequences AU summary: The studio Henry explores is a distorted version of the original and is a pocket dimension within the old ink machine that can be spotted in the back room of Joeys apartment. The studio also contains the trapped souls of most of the employees as over the years Joey has been luring them to him through sending letters and befriending them. Henry also falls for this trick and is forced to play Joeys story out though memory wipes and Joeys influence over the studio. Although slowly Henry begins retaining his memory, and his appearance was changed as a sign of him fighting back, he manages to break the loop without Joey noticing. Now he along with Allison, Tom, and a select few revived employees have to make their way up to the first floor exit in order to escape.

{{authors note: Ill be adding a prelude in the future when I have the time}}

...

"...I hate this..." Bendy mumbled into Henry's shoulder.

"Well the only way out of here is up" Henry adjusted his grip while carrying the little demon piggyback style. He glanced at Tom, changed by the ink to resemble the character Boris the wolf from Joey Drew Studios. Although it wasn't a complete resemblance, he had dark red fur, a small chunk of his right ear being torn and a mechanical arm he built himself. Henry then glanced at Allison who was also changed to look like Alice the angel, but she too didn't share a complete resemblance. She had filed down her horns, her halo was practically a hair band, and had slightly yellow ink stained wings. Henry was changed by the ink as well, much taller then he used to be, nearly entirely ink stained, horns, and a half halo along with a pair of petit wings. They all were walking down a dingy hallway, and were worn down from the mad dash out of the ink machine when it collapsed. Even more so from narrowly escaping the flood of ink soon after that which reached all the way to the film vault and appointment lobby.

"Good, someplace we can recuperate" Allison sighed.

They entered into and stopped in the center of an empty shanty town, silent in the large cave. They silently acknowledged a large lump of bubbling ink near them and Allison nudged Tom, looking at him apologeticly but clearly asking to check it out. Rubbing his eyes for a moment he takes out his axe and walks over to the suspiciously human shaped lump. Thomas stood over it, posture stiff, grip firm, and ears perked, waiting for something to pop out of the puddle.

After a few moments he deemed it safe enough to flip the axe and poke the thing with the butt end of his axe handle. His eyes narrowed and his head tilted, the thing was solid, and realized it's chest was rising and falling.

'It couldn't possibly be a lost one, not skinny enough...or squishy' Thomas thought as he poked it once more, eyes narrowed.

He turned to the group who were currently discussing their next course of action and made a gruff noise to get their attenion. Henry was the first to notice so he walked over to him and Tom gestured to the lump of ink.

Henry, gaze fixed on the things face, gently wipes the ink away and quickly pulls his hand back, his expression stoic but his eyes a wirl of emotions. Tom is baffled, the face of Sammy, human Sammy stared back at them stained with ink and eyes closed. He almost looked strangely peaceful asleep, curled up, and blanketed in ink. Henry and Tom glanced at one another, Tom went back to the group while Henry shook Sammy's shoulder. He started coughing weakly and Henry propped him up, his head over his shoulder and patting his back, Sammy vomited up an unholy amount of ink.

The group was quietly staring at Sammy's back not wanting to break the silence while Henry was wiping away the rest of the ink on the former mad prophet. Once the gagging, coughing, and vomiting finally subsided he blearily opened his eyes, mumbling while his eyes focused onto the dirt ground.

"You okay Sammy?" Henry said quietly, a hint of remorse creeping in.

"W-what?...wait...Henry?" Sammy croaked

He took a deep breath for a moment, "yeah, it's me"

"What's wrong? Where am I?" Rasped Sammy still limp in Henry's arms, his gaze shifted to the soles of his shoes.

Tears were on the verge of spilling and he took a deep breath again, "I...you...you were trapped down here for a very long time, the studio I mean, we finally have a chance to get out of this hell hole"

Sammy found some strength and slowly brought his arms around Henry's back, hands bumping into a small pair of fluffy folded wings. He blinked at the unfamiliar feathered appendages and open then closed his mouth.

"The fuck is this" he slurred

Sammy still had some ink in his mouth which he promptly spit out as his mind was becoming less foggy. Then spotting the long thin nervously twitching tail that ended in a fountain pen tip attached to Henry. He pulled away from Henry enough to get a good look on his face, two horns, a half halo, and a scarred aged face. If he looked close enough he could also see pie cut irises that were giving him a nervous and concerned look.

"The hell happened to you" Sam blurted

The tears from earlier came back in full force as Henry choked out a giggle, then full on laughter all the while crying, his small wings fluttering and his halo flickering.

"I-I" he wheezed

"I've been though this shit so many times, this fucking cycle of hell, this is what I get for breaking out of it"

"But I honestly don't give a shit at the moment because it's worth it, this needed to happen eventually " calming himself down as he spoke.

At this point Sammy completely separated from Henry and tried shuffling on his knees, keyword tired. When he finally looked down he realized that not only was he only in yellowed, ink stained overalls and his skin was covered in numerous ink stains, but that from the knee below were sheep legs with curly wool and everything. He promptly screamed while scrambling backwards still on the ground and staring at his legs with wide eyes. Then he realized he had other features too, like a short fluffy tail, ram horns, and floppy sheep ears, it seemed that Henry's appearance kept him from noticing for a bit.

"WhatthefuckwhyisthishappeningwhatthehellisgoingonwhereamIwhattheflyingfuckhappenedtome" he sputtered to himself clutching his horns and drawing his knees to his chest.

Sammy hadn't noticed the group yet, since he was facing away from them and so far they have been silently watching the whole thing play out.

"Tom I don't thin-" Henry didn't finish as Tom decided it is a good time to say hi and shut Sammy up by walking over and nudging him with his foot a bit.

Sammy stopped his rambling, looked up owlishly, slowly reached up and poked him on the snout. Tom who was quite surprised sneezed in response while Sammy recoiled.

"OH JESUS YOU AREN'T A HALLUCINATION" he screamed while scrambling once more to try and stand, looking like a baby deer on ice.

Everyone started snickering at the ridiculous sight but mostly sympathized, Sam noticed the last of the group, Allison and Bendy, and looked around at his surroundings.

Sammy saw that he was in the center of a small rickety village within a large open part of a cave. On one side we're docks leading to an inky river down what seemed to be a sewer system. On the other side was the village, the hallway the group exited from and a previously boarded up doorway leading to a dead end. The broken doorway was decorated with dozens of four fingered handprints, candles, and a sign above it saying 'NOT MONSTERS'. The sight of it brought a shiver up his spine.

He then turned back to Henry and yelled, "IS THIS SOME SORT OF SICK JOKE" Sam stumbled towards him, unfamiliar legs shaking.

"EXPLAIN, NOW!" Voice echoing in the large cave.


	2. Chapter 2

"Clearly you don't remember anything" Henry stated

Sammy shuffled towards and almost fell onto Henry, who caught him just in time, and had him use his arm as support.

"Look, Joey found out how to do some crazy ass things and long story short it trapped dozens of employees souls including us in some weird version of the studio. He also kept me trapped in some sort of loop and after a few dozen attempts I managed to break out of it, now we're gonna make our way back up to the exit and give him what he deserves"

Despite Henrys help Sam gave him his signature glare from when he used to work at the studio and Henry introduced the group. Sammy recognized Allison Pendle immediately since she wasn't drastically changed from when she worked in the studio as a voice actor, he had a a bit of a harder time recognizing Tom though.

"And...who" Sam gestures vaguely to Thomas, both of their pie cut irises meeting.

"Thomas Connor, have you ever gotten a chance to meet him before?" Henry said

"Why should I even be surprised at this point, I can't exactly forget the mechanic who had to build that goddamn machine" Sam replied, eyebrows raised as he started at Tom.

'And I heard you were quite the grade A asshole, but I guess those rumors were blown a bit out of proportion, also I didn't know what I was getting into' Tom signed, scowling.

"Why did he wave his hands around?" Sam looked to Henry

"He's mute now, and he's using sign language" he explained as Tom was now glaring at Sammy. "He pretty much said that it wasn't his choice and didn't know what he was getting into".

"Oh...sorry about that" muttered Sam. Tom deemed it a good enough apology, and made a noise some where between a grunt and a growl to indicate he accepted it. The wolf man then stopped glaring but he still had that ever present scowl.

"Okay enough with all this junk, ain't we suppose' to be goin somewhere? Ya know, the whole we gotta escape from tha studio an' kick the ol' geezers ass plan?" Bendy loudly proclaimed, standing in between Sammy and Henry, snapping his fingers.

The little demon was tapping one of his hooved feet impatiently. He wasn't paid much attention until now since he was extremely short, coming up to the midway point of almost everyone's torsos, except Henry who towered over everyone. Short tail ending in an arrow tip swishing impatiently, pie cut eyes with black sclera and white irises looking between the two men. His widows peek furrowed, functioning as eyebrows. He looked like a child, swimming in Henry's ill fitting sweater.

"Bendys right, we need to get back on track" Allison said

She walked to and inspected the boat she and Tom used while ago next to the docks. Bendy motioned for Tom to follow as he joined Allison fixing up the paddle wheel and engine on the boat. When Henry joined in he made sure the engine wouldn't give out midway through the trip, since he didn't want a repeat of the giant inky hand thing in the river chasing him as his boats paddle wheel kept getting stuck. He shivered at the thought of the panic that would've happened. They put on the finishing touches and pushed the thing into the small murky harbor.

They all climbed in and there was a tense silence, waiting for something to happen, the only sound being the humming of the motor and the splashing of the paddle wheel. They rounded a few corners in the ink filled tunnel and all seemed well. But as the barge, their destination, came within sight a loud eerie groan rang out a little too close for comfort. Everyone silently panicked, Sammy not so much, Toms scruff bristled, a fierce growl ripped out of his throat as he swiftly pulled out an axe.

With a loud splash the large ink swollen hand emerged taking hold of the boat, jostling its passengers, even with full acceleration from Henry it wouldn't budge.

Tom without hesitation planted a few good wacks from his axe and it immediately let go, sinking into the river, making the boat practically go straight into the barge. Everyone scrambled out of the boat to the safety of the shore as the hand came back and dragged the boat down to the depths of the river.

After everyone was throughly shaken up, especially Sammy, they made their way down another hallway that ended in Tom and Allison's now abandoned safe house.

"I'm sorry we couldn't explain sooner but there are some dangerous things down here" Allison said to Sammy as she, Thomas, and Henry were tearing down dozens of boards, revealing a passage way off to the side.

Tom then tossed Sam a particularly long and slim board with nails coming out the end, he nodded to him silently thanking him for the weapon. Once the passage was cleared they made their way down the dim hallway that was now unobscured.

"Hey, if Sammy is normal now maybe we could check other spots, see if there's anyone else" Bendy suggested, who was once again latched onto Henry's back.

"We should probably do that, god knows how much they'll panic when they wake up considering how Sammy reacted, they might not even remember much from here" Henry agreed

They continued walking occasionally clearing crates or other debris, and going either right or left when encountering a fork in the road with the help of Tom and Allison who knew the layout well. Soon enough they were at the exit of the haunted house ride in Bendy Hell. Since there weren't any clear paths to get to the other end of the ride they had to walk though it. They paused in the ball room area, dusty, brightly lit, and open where Henry was forced to fight Boris, and found a familiar bubbling, human shaped lump of ink. Everyone looked at one another, agreed to a game of Rock Paper Scissors to resolve the small dilemma and Henry had to poke it this time. He was given a axe handle which was found during the walk there and practically shoved towards the mound, after all if his memory wasn't screwy this was Susie or "Alice" as she so frantically wanted to be. He sighed, for he always had to do most of the work.

"Please don't attack me please don't attack me" he whispered as he poked her with the butt end of the handle, after a few moments he picked her up a did the same thing he did with Sammy. He wiped the ink off her and helped her puke up most the ink in her system, although it was a bit more nasty. Mainly because she used a lot of chunky/ thick ink in order to try and become a "perfect" Alice Angel. Henry grimaced at the sight of what she managed to expel.

She still had her ragged black dress with the spaghetti straps and bow, along with her horns, halo partially in her head, and a pair of small, sickly, damaged wings. But the right side of her face, which used to look like it was melting, is now left with it being scarred and slightly sagged. It seamed her right eye was beyond saving though since it's pretty much missing, leaving an ink stain on her eye socket and upper and lower lid.

"Welcome back" Henry said solemnly as she started waking up

{{authors note: sorry if this is a bit short}}


	3. Chapter 3

"What the hell!?" Susie screams as she pushes Henry away

She quickly gets up and whirls around not paying much attention to her surroundings and the group as she spots Allison first, who had her hand on her sword handle, but not taking it out of its sheath.

She zeros in on Allison "you BITCH, why the hell did you kidnap me and why are you wearing such a ridiculous outfit!" She says as she's marching up to Allison.

Henry is holding back his laughter as he realizes how ridiculous this is. But mostly everyone was taken off guard by what Susie said, even more so by Allison who doesn't remember much of her life before the studio. This allowed Susie to come up to Allison and roughly tug at her filed down horns, thinking they were apart of her "costume". Allison yelps as she keeps trying to pull at her horns.

Susie becomes increasingly irritated until she mutters loudly "stupid blindfold, can't even put it on someone's face correctly" and reaches up to her right eye. Then she freezes, letting go of Allison's horn and gently feeling her eyelid.

"W-what?" She says softly.

"I...I d-don't understand..." her voice breaks mid sentence

She looks around and finally realizes she has company, confusion, panic, and the urge to cry clearly displayed on her face.

She sinks down to her knees " wa-wait, where am I? Who? Why a-are you all..."

She starts crying quietly and Allison hesitantly walks over to her, trying to console her. But before she could even get a word out of her mouth Susie leans away from her.

"Don't your dare try and speak another word to me" she hissed at her

Allison sighed not understanding her hostility despite not having her memories from being a deranged Alice, and called Sammy over. He shuffled awkwardly over to her while Allison walked away and Henry joined the welcoming committee.

Susie, who had her hands in her face peeked up at Sammy and whined "oh god you too, you look ridiculous" between sobs.

"Susie, just breath for a few minutes and let us explain" Sammy sighed, and glanced at Henry who took over a moment or two later.

"You and many other people have been trapped in some hell version of the studio..." he started "The ink here changed us, even you..." and tapped her horns which she reached up and touched. "We are going to escape through the first floor exit but we're taking pit stops and checking if we can bring anyone along"

"So this isn't fake..." she mumbled sniffling

"Yep" he responded

She then cried even louder

"Woahwoahwoah, it's okay, it's okay, the more people who join us the better chance we have" Sammy sputtered rubbing her back in circles, trying to reassure her.

After almost half an hour of calming her down, explaining the situation, and introductions they made there way to the entrance of the haunted house storage area of Bendy Hell. It was a large warehouse like room, tall shelves lined with parts, benches, and trash cans decorated with Bendys face, there were also carnival games here and there. There were also entrances to other rooms to other rides, including the octopus ride that was possessed by Bertrum Piedmont and tired to kill Henry. Allison, Tom, and Henry who were pretty much the unofficial leaders of the group silently agreed to check the now broken ride out.

Entering into the room with the now limbless park ride Sammy, Susie, and Bendy stayed near the entrance while Tom, Allison and Henry inspected the machine.

"Why are we wasting our time looking at some broken carnival ride" Susie sneered

"Well apparently last time Henry was here Bertrums oversized head was in it and tried to kill him, he had to pretty much dismember the ride" Allison responded

The three inspected the ride. Curly accents, wooden like texture, almost like the center of a carousel in design. There were also shutters to where Bertrums swollen head would've been seen when Henry fought him. Those shutters were now tightly shut, ink leaking out of them and where the arms of the ride used to be. Allison jumped up, her wings weren't large but they were big enough to give her some lift when she jumped and grabbed onto the edge of one of the shutters gaps. She planted her feet firmly onto the ride, pulled her sword out, and used it to pry open the shutters next to her. Ink blasted out of the now exposed interior of the mechanism put still had about 3ft. of ink left in it, the stream was in the direction of the remaining three next to the doorway. Sammy quickly pulled Susie and Bendy out of the way of the blast.

Susie snapped at Henry and Allison "Oh Jesus warn us next time! That sludge is plain repulsive!" she huffed.

The ink had various chunks of mechanical parts from inside the ride and god knows what else. Susie looked at the mess in disgust. Allison who moved out of the way in time when she opened up the machine climbed into it, the ink coming up to her waist. She leaned out through the open window, offered a hand to Henry, and he too climbed in, the ink only came up to the top of his thighs. The inside was octagonal and cramped, Henry had to hunch in order not to hit his head on the ceiling,there were ink coated wires and inactive machinery hanging in various spots.

In the center of the small interior was an inky form suspended by tanged pumps and wires, this was the amusement park purveyor Bertrum Piedmont himself. Henry peeked out of the open window, asked Tom for an axe and to join in, and it was promptly tossed up to him along with hoisting the former mechanic inside as well. Tom helped differentiate what was the tangle of wires and such from Bertrum himself so that Henry could hack away at the mass of ink safely and get him down. Bertie fell into the pool below, after a moment of searching blindly in the small area they found him and Henry hoisted him over his shoulder.

"We found Piedmont, but we're gonna need some help getting him down" Henry called out to the trio, Thomas got out to help the others since Susie gave a disgusted expression and Bendy was too small.

"Incoming!" Henry called as he and Allison tried there best to lower the new man from 5 feet up without hurting him. Unfortunately due to to the slick ink they were all covered in Bertie easily slipped out of their grasp. He landed squarely on poor Sammy and he fell on his back, getting winded from the sudden heavy weight on him. Thomas didn't share the same fate as Sammy since he backed away in time and was snickering as Sammy managed to roll Bertrum off of him. Apparently this was enough to wake him up from his near coma like unconsciousness, as he immediately started throwing up excess ink. Sputtering he slowly picked himself up, flopping over and proving himself up on his elbows and wiped the ink off of his face and arms.

Standing up he wiped the rest of the ink off of him revealing two sets of mechanical arms. They were similar in design to Thomas' arm but a different coloration and had swirling designs on his cheeks, chin, and tops of all of his hands similar to the ride he possessed. He started at them for a moment, moved them around, and looked up with a grim expression.

"What the fuck happened" he spat.

Sammy was still laying on the ground, wheezing, which caught Bertrum's attention.

"W-Well that was pleasant." A cough and deep inhale, a glare was shot.

"Well we all used to be trapped in an apparent nightmare version studio and Henry over here is helping us get outa here" Sammy said as he slowly got up and grabbed his thumb towards Henry, still needing some practice standing on his new legs. Bertie raised an eyebrow and Henry gave him a general rundown of what was going on. Now there was a new party member and he was introduced to the others.

"So you're the one that helped that pretentious asshole found the place" Bertrum said scowling as Henry fully introduced himself.

"Well I was stupid enough to think he was a good friend, guess he just decided to take his time with me before really showing who he his"

"Seems he didn't spare anyone who worked here, along with those bull speeches about his...ambitions huh" a tired sigh, finally starting to relax.

"I got my revenge by leaving and having a family, he tried to steal that from me and now he's getting what's coming to him"

They both shared an understanding look and shook hands, united by the fact that they both wanted to really have a "talk" with the piece of crap Drew. Now Henry had one last person in mind to see if he too was restored in another room in storage. That someone was the lonely but dangerous Projectionist, also known as Norman Polk, who Henry had quietly hoped would still be alive the moment they found Sammy.


	4. Chapter 4

"Okay everyone, we're gonna check on Norman, see if he's alive" Henry said turning to the others.

"Why'd ya think he would be dead?" Bendy asked, tilting his head.

"Last time I saw him he...got his head ripped off by you" Henry mumbled, not looking at the small demon.

"Oh..." then there was an awkward silence.

"Uhm, would you mind elaborating on that?" Bertrum said as everyone gave Bendy and Henry uneasy glances.

"Yeah...come to think of it you haven't told us much beyond that Joey is responsible for all this..." Sammy spoke up. Susie narrowed her gaze at Bendy and Henry, Bendy was wringing his small tail looking up worried at Henry for answers.

"H-Henry? Was I really that bad?" Mumbled the small demon.

Henry sighed placing his hand on Bendys head, patting it lightly, trying to comfort him " I promise I'll explain everything, and I mean everything. But first I want to get Norman so everyone can listen, no beating around the bush"

"Sammy, you of all people should know I would never lie, I'm not like Joey".

Henry kept his expression carefully stoic as they made their way towards the storage for the Boris themed train ride. He really didn't want to deal with simple bickering after dying dozens of times, reliving the same story over and over again. But he also really hated trying to lie at all to them, but I guess asking them to put blind faith into him is even worse, he didn't want to pull any of the crap Joey used to. He stepped into the ink flooded room and held his hand up in front of the group who had followed him.

"I think I can handle this, every other time has been alright, I'll yell if anything happens" Henry said solemnly, staring at Allison and Tom.

Slowly walking through the thick ink he made his way past one of the trains and up the stairs, it was eerily silent. Henry was nervous, after all Susie was only stabbed, and well, Norman didn't have a head after his encounter with Bendy. Fidgeting with his tail he comes upon a pile of ink in front of the miracle station at the end of the dim hall. He sighed in relief, seeing the pile bubbling and generally doing the same thing the previous puddles did except with half of his projector head was submerged in the puddle. Henry bent down and moved the projector slightly, revealing part of it was basically broken off, it almost looked like the ink absorbed it like an acid. The found the head of the figure and started cleaning him up starting with his face, he found an old African American man with salt and pepper hair with sideburns. The missing part of the projector was apart of the right side of his face now that reached all the way to the back of his head, the lens replacing his right eye that was blind before. There were three thick wires as well, starting at the back of his head, two attached to his shoulder blades, and the last one in the middle of his back. As he was wiping away the rest of the ink on him it revealed that Norman still had a speaker embedded into his chest, his arms and legs were inky too elongated in an almost cartoonish way.

"Oh he really isn't going to like this" Henry thought out loud.

Norman suddenly, violently flinched at Henry speaking, opening his eyes and accidentally blinding Henry with the light coming from his lens. Norman scrambled up, managing to land a hard right hook right in Henry's nose.

"FUCK"Henry shouted falling backwards.

'Honestly I probably deserved that' he though nursing his now bloody nose.

Norman gets on his feet, stumbles and barfs ink into the miracle station next to him gripping the side of it tightly. The rest of the ink falling off of him revealing slightly elongated near cartoonish inky arms he had as the projectionist ending at the elbow. His stained button up shirt was torn at the chest, showing the speaker still embedded into his chest with ink around it, almost like scar tissue.

Once Norman was left dry heaving and panting he looked around hesitantly, clearly panicked and scared.

"Heyyy Norm, long time no see" Henry said weakly slowly getting up, checking if his nose has broken or anything which it thankfully wasn't.

"Henry? W-wha? I...I was shoved down the elevator shaft and...and...where am I? Why are you here?" Norman asked shakily, his voice coming out of the speaker instead of his mouth giving it a slightly staticy tinge.

"Well you certainly aren't dead, not anymore I guess, and I honestly don't know why the hell I'm here" Henry's voice was slightly nasally as he was pinching his nose.

"This may seem sudden Norman but we're in what's pretty much a hell version of the studio, I'll explain everything once I get you to the group" Henry spoke as he released his nose which leaked blood.

"And to get this looked at" he added pinching his nose once more.

Norman was quietly staring at his new additions and at Henry's new appearance, then said "I've seen a lot of shit over the years but this tops all of it, poking softly at the speaker while talking.

Henry and Norman walk out of the storage room, meeting up with the group who had gathered outside of the entrance of Bendy Hell. They were all seated in the various couches below Bertrums old workshop / office. Sammy and Susie discreetly held each other's hands while chatting seemingly catching up with one another, Tom and Bertrum were fiddling with their mechanical arms. Allison who was scouring the storage shelves with the help of Bendy for any useful tools noticed Henry and whistled to get the attention of everyone. Norman shuffled over to one of the sofas and sat next to Tom, who gave him a look that said 'welcome to the club' and softly patted him on the back. Everyone was silent, waiting for Henry to speak, who was now the only one standing and took a deep breath.

"I want to start this at the beginning, when I helped found the studio. Joey was someone I met during high school and we quickly became friends, then we decided to make a studio together. The first few months were hectic, Joey never put any real work into his ideas, he would just come up with something and expect me to pull a complete project out of my ass or something. He would pile so much work onto me I could barely go out anymore, let alone see my wife...then...well...one day I simply collapsed from exhaustion. I couldn't take it, so I left and got drafted, he hated that so he cut all contact with me and took all the credit for my work. When the war ended m-my...wife passed after having my daughter so I had to do plenty of odd jobs to keep us afloat" Henry's expression grew unreadable near the end, he took a breath and his face was stoic.

"The studio was completely out of my mind by the time we managed to get a proper house and I got a job as a art teacher, it's hard to imagine for me now that it's been 30 years since I last worked at the studio. When Joey sent me a note to visit him and catch up I was hoping to forgive and forget."

The look in his eyes darkened "We got into an argument and he...stabbed me in the shoulder, then shoved me in here. He then wiped my memory of the argument, and had me play out some sort of sick twisted story over and over again...".

Henry suddenly found the floor interesting to look at "I couldn't remember anything after each loop at first but it slowly started coming back to me as I started changing, realizing I was trapped, I got plenty of scars from getting the same injuries over and over again too." He said pointing at one of the various scars on his forearm, which was a rough messy splotch around his wrist, the grayish pink a stark difference to the thoroughly ink stained skin.

"Being here for so long being around and in so much ink messed with you guys except Allison and Tom" Bertrum, Susie, and Sammy had worried looks.

"Al-Susie, you were an insane, manipulative, and despicable bitch who tortured the creatures and then use their ink to try and make yourself a 'perfect' Alice." Henry's eyes narrowed at Susie

"You also decided to play mad scientist and make one of the only people here that were nice to me, a Boris, into a Frankenstein's monster that I was forced to kill. Over and over and over again." She paled, gently touching the scarred side of her face.

"But I knew you weren't normally like this, Joey brings out the worst in people" Henry's expression softened "you, Sammy, and Bertrum"

He turned to Sammy "You were a psycho 'prophet' of your 'lord' Bendy and have knocked me out, tried to sacrifice me, and nearly killed me, multiple times"

He then turned to Norman "In all honesty you weren't as bad, but, you were a creature that had a projector for a head and ate ink hearts, and screamed if you saw me, a lot". He cringed slightly at the memory of a burst eardrum once during his attempts to get Susie some ink hearts.

Henry then faced Bertrum "You pretty much became a giant head inside the octopus ride you built that we found you in, when I first got there I played a tape and you proceeded to beat the shit out of me until I chopped off all the rides limbs"

Henry finally turned to Bendy "You had no choice or control in what your were doing, I realized that after some time. You were put to be in a story you wanted no part in, forced to be killed over and over again just like me, cast as the villain in Joeys eyes. Being the demon that ruled the studio sparing no one in his path. I'm past hating you in any way Ben." He kneeled, petting him between his horns softly.

Henry stands up, takes a deep breath, feeling awkward and embarrassed about spilling so much about his life but glad he got this over with.

"Now lets get the hell out of here" He said as he suddenly started crawling into the open vent nearby, remembering that this was the way to the elevator shaft.


	5. Chapter 5

When Henry disappeared into the vent everyone shared a look, and one by one followed him.

"When we get out of the vents I want you guys to stay quiet, Allison, Tom you guys know what I'm talking about" Henry's voice echoed as they were crawling.

After turning a few tight corners they came into a small dim room, candles and crates scattered and filled with lost ones, human shaped, emaciated, inky trapped souls. All of their amber glowing eyes turned to the group as the slowly got out. Henry, Allison, and Tom were used to their presence, Bendy was shaking and was promptly picked up and held by Henry. Bertrum stared his expression horrified, Sammy grimaced not looking up at them, and Susie was sniffling, clearly upset by the sight. Norman give the lost ones a cautious look that changed to pity. Everyone was silent except for the occasional sobbing from some of the lost ones. Sammy wrapped his arm around Susie's shoulder comforting her as they all walked out. It seemed they had really given up because none of them did anything, they all simply stared at them as they were leaving.

After crossing an eerie hallway where Henry could've sworn he still heard whispers in the walls they came to a large shaft where the ink machine was lowered. Along the walls a spiraling pathway made of boards, but there was a gap in the path in front of them, with a small rickety bridge cart being the only thing that could help them cross it.

"Oh god this is gonna suck" Sammy groaned, staying a far as he could away from the edge of the path in the cavern with Norman doing the same thing.

"Littlest ones first" Bertrum said nudging Bendy slightly with his foot towards the cart, he lightly kicked him in the leg in response, blowing a raspberry but giving nervous glances at the edge.

"Watch it bub!" Bendy yelped.

Allison glared at Bertrum in disapproval for a second before tapping the small devils shoulder, distracting him from how high up they all were.

"I'll come with you if you want" Allison asked, to which Bendy nodded and both climbed into the suspended cart. Henry hit the switch for the bridge and the cart slowly made its way across the gap, this process was repeated three times before it was finally Henry's turn. Henry climbed in and Norman flipped the switch on the other side kicking the cart into motion, but something happened.

After getting halfway across the cart abruptly stopped with the gears jamming, after a moment of panic Tom kicked the machine pulling the cart and started back up again. Suddenly a snapping sound rang out, the rope that was suspending the cart began to tear apart. Henry managed to grab onto it before the cart dropped out from underneath him, sent tumbling into the cavern leaving him suspended in the air, clinging onto the rope. Allison, Tom, Bertrum, and Sammy exclaimed, rushing to pull him up while Susie was trying her best to reassure Bendy Henry was alright. Once Henry was finally on the other side safely Bendy barreled into his legs, hugging them tightly saying nothing.

Henry picked him up once more, patting his back while the small devil was shaking, he knew the little guy would never admit it but Bendy saw him like a dad. Henry felt similar, from the moment he realized that Bendy wasn't controlling his own actions he knew he would take him in as if he were his own flesh and blood if he could.

Taking a minute to calm down from the whole predicament Norman noticed that if anyone looked close enough the bottom of the cavern was full of ink, that wasn't a good sign. It seemed that the ink was ever so slowly rising, from having flooded the bottom level to now past the old shanty town and possibly starting to leak into Bendy Hell. Nobody liked the quiet threat down below them and they knew now that they had a time limit.

They practically ran through the archive room and past finances all the way to the bottom of the elevator shaft. The lift was completely destroyed but they could still climb up the shaft, Allison pulled out some extra rope, tied a hook to it and tossed it up there as far as she could. And so began the long process of getting everyone up the levels to a point where they could take a staircase instead.

After some time of climbing, fighting any searchers that popped up and not being able to take a break they finally stopped at level 9. Henry was becoming hopeful, eager to get out after being trapped in here for so long and missed his family up on the surface badly. He wondered what his daughter would be doing now, he knew she of all people would be the first to notice his absence.

—-

It was a peaceful night, crickets making themselves known in the suburbs while everyone was sleeping. Except one person, a young woman sitting tensely in her kitchen next to the phone on the wall, waiting. She finally managed to convince the search party to look closer near where her father said he was last before disappearing and was waiting to hear if they had found anything. The phone barely rang once before it was quickly picked up and held up to her ear.

"Hi Linda" the person on the other end said.

"Hey officer Michael, any news?" She eagerly responded, nearly interrupting him.

"Hold your horses" he replied "we did find something, but it ain't too good"

Linda took a deep breath trying not to assume the worst.

"We found Henry's car off the side of the road in the woods, it's a little busted up and it looks like the only thing missing is his bag" then he whispers " were keeping people out of the area around it to investigate but I'm willing to help sneak you in to see it for yourself"

"Thank you Michael! Thank you! I'll meet up with you right now."

"No problem Linda, see you soon"

She hung up, grabbing her coat and practically flying out the door, she was determined to find her father.

—-

They passed by the ink maze where Henry first encountered the projectionist and managed to get to the bottom of "Alice's" former domain. Henry notified them that they could take a staircase from here as he pried open the gate to level 9. Walking instead of climbing was a nice change pace for them as they quickly ascended, occasionally needing to take a lone searcher or two along with grabbing cans of bacon soup. They paused for a break at level 11, it was a dingy hallway, lights flickering, ink leaking from the ceiling, and part of the floor was below level filled with ink. There was little miracle station in the corner along with a few crates scattered about, the group decided to sit down on the crates to rest.

"So uh, Henry. What happened after you left?" Norman asked hesitantly, he was curious about his old work friends life.

"A lot of stuff, raising a daughter on your own wasn't easy, grew up to be a lot like her mother" he chuckled softly thinking back to tomboyish his daughter used to be, always bringing home some kind of insect or animal home.

His smile dropped "But please, I don't really want to spill my guts more than I already have, at least wait until we're out of here."

Everyone gave a quiet "oh". Henry was tired, he wanted to rest in his bed at home, he was feeling homesick, badly so. But he didn't want to rant or monologue about his life to the others, he wouldn't want to bother them with it more than he did before.

The silence was interrupted by a chorus of pained wails and groans, echoing through the hall. The ink nearby rippled, a huge mound formed and pulled itself out of the moat. Henry, Allison, and Tom pulled out their weapons without hesitation, Sammy was a few seconds behind grabbing his board with nails in it given to him awhile ago. Everyone else was terrified and Susie screamed, the thing lumbering towards them was a writhing, screaming clump of swollen searchers stuck together, struggling, desperate to drag someone in. Tom leapt, planting his axe firmly into one of the Hive searchers heads to which it promptly burst, he turned to the others and barked wanting them out of danger.

"Run now! We'll meet you at Heavenly Toys!" Allison shouted while slicing off one of the hive searchers many hands that was reaching towards them.

"Hell no! I'm not going anywhere, you clearly need help" Sammy butted in, hitting a homerun on one of the smaller searchers that sloughed off of the Hive with his nailed board.

At this point Norman scooped Bendy up and stashed him in the miracle station, to which Henry gave him an appreciative look, with Susie who had dove in there as soon as she saw the Hive searcher. The hive searcher was breaking apart from all the hacking and slashing now, separating all the searchers that were stuck together which made the fight a bit more difficult. Henry was having a difficult time keeping the searchers off of him as he seemed to be a point of interest for them, with three of them managing to grab ahold of his legs. Those three were quickly dispatched with a few punches from Bertrums mechanical arms. Henry gave him a dumbfounded look, he shrugged in response, Bertrum didn't have a weapon so his metal fists would suffice. Then there was a screech, eerily similar to the projectionists and Henry froze for a moment, his mind thinking for a moment that he was back to that dreaded maze. He shook his head and saw Norman, roaring, his lens eye destabilising any searchers in its light, it was so bright it looked as if it was burning them away.

"God Norman can you please warn us next time?" Bertrum said wincing at the sheer volume of the screech.

The roar died after that, Norman catching his breath as he was able to get the number of searchers to a manageable level. Then there was another scream, but it was a battle cry this time, a few searchers had tired to get into the little miracle station and Susie had burst out, somehow finding and arming herself with a gent pipe. She was clearly scared but fight won out over flight as she was beating the remaining inky creatures with the pipe. Sammy watched in awe, everyone else in shock as she finished them off, panting heavily she then threw the ink soaked pipe to the ground.

'We all really need a good place to sleep right now' Henry thought to himself 'hopefully Heavenly toys is a good spot for it'.

After making sure everyone was accounted for and okay they went up the last flight of stairs, down through some halls and into the large open room that was Heavenly toys.


	6. Chapter 6

They stopped once more near the doorway out, the room was large, a high ceiling and tall pillar like ink fountain holding up the sign to the place. Everyone took a sigh of relief as they all piled on top of the two couches nearby. They decided it would be good to sleep and to take shifts, two staying up while the others napped or rested for a few hours at a time, to which Henry insisted to take first shift. The suggestion was quickly shot down, they all knew Henry needed to take a break since he hasn't slept in god knows how long, he reluctantly complied as Tom and Allison took the first shift. After that Norman and Bertrum took over, everyone else was peacefully napping, at some point Bertrum began nodding off when he heard something.

They had grown used to the occasional creaking of the old building and ink flowing through the pipes but an occasional wimper could be heard. Norman and Bertrum looked at one another, then at the source of the noise, it was Henry. He was hugging himself tightly, shaking, curled in the corner of the couch and muttering in his sleep.

"..n-no..please...no" he sounded heart broken, he reached out, trying to hug someone who was dear to him, but finding nothing.

"No...I-I love you...pleas-" his breath hitched

"Do-on't...leave me...we.." He hugs himself once more, nails digging into his arms "Don't give up...please".

"Y-you just…" He sobs "our baby girl…".

"I-I'm..I can't...care for her...without y-you, I-I'm not ready"

"Pl-please, I-I don't want to be alone" he stops mumbling, now back to whimpering softly.

This managed to wake Bendy up from where he was napping on the other side of the room, he dragged his hooves, still half asleep. He slowly made his way to Henry and crawled into his arms, gently making them separate from the iron grip before. Bendy took one of Henry's hands and gave them a tender reassuring squeeze, Henry responded my curling his arms around him and quieting down, his shaking stopped. They both drifted off to more pleasant dreams, which Henry desperately needed nowadays. Bertrum and Norman had watched, Norman had gotten to know Henry while working in the studio by helping him bring letters back and forth to his girlfriend and later wife. But what Henry said left him more then a little concerned for his friends well being, Sammy had woken up as well from the noise and listened too, him and Norman shared a concerned look.

At the last moment the group, who had all woken up and were getting ready to start walking again, decided to give Henry and Bendy a few minutes. Tom ran off to check the elevator shaft to see how many floors the ink flooded, Bertrum was starting to get impatient and shook Henry's shoulder, trying to wake him up.

"Five more minutes sweetie" Henry mumbled "You know dad needs his sleep" then weakly swatting at Bertrums hand.

Bendy woke up from Bertrums shaking and both looked at one another with narrowed eyes.

"Goblin thing, can you please wake him up" Bertrum asked, Bendy responded by snuggling into Henry's arms still glaring.

Tom came back from inspecting the shaft, the ink had flooded level 14 and partially flooded the floor below level 9, Allison let everyone know that they needed to get a move on.

"Please, wake Henry up" Bertrum asked again a little nicer.

Bendy, contemplated for a second, then muttered "okay fine"

"Henry we need ta go, common get ya head outa dreamland already" Bendy wiggles out of Henry's arms and pokes his face.

Henry abruptly sits up, he groans and rubs at his eyes, trying to dispel his drowsiness as he gets of the couch, Bendy climbed off at the same time. Henry was informed of the situation and Tom busted open the door out of the room, they made their way through a dark machine ridden hallway and then to Boris's old safe house. They looked around the place and grabbed some spare supplies in there, Henry stayed back for a moment, whispering an apology and a goodbye to good old Boris before catching up to the others.

After taking a few turns in some confusing corridors and crawling through another vent they made it down a hallway and into Sammy's old sacrifice room. The broken ropes Henry was tied up in where still there and Henry eyed the symbol beneath them. Making their way through another door and a staircase they get to the Music department. Susie, Sammy, Norman, and Bertrum were pretty confused by the layout, it was nothing like the studio they remember. Henry, Allison, and Tom though we're steadily becoming more and more excited knowing how close they were to the exit. Bendy who was once again clinging to Henry's back couldn't remember what much of the studio looked like after being restored so he just silently observed his surroundings.

They passed through a gate and to Utility shaft 9, Sammy was staring at all the symbols, candles, and Bendy cutouts, Bendy tried not to look at the cutouts for too long. Sammy spotted a tape perched on a shelf next to the doorway out, then pressed play. As soon as he heard himself say "savior" he grabbed the tape and threw it to the ground, crushing it beneath his hoof, he looked grim shaking his head.

"That isn't me, I would never say that trash" He said, feeling winded.

Henry patted Sammy on the back "I know Sammy, I know".

Susie hugged Sammy, she saw glimpses of the damage she had done as "Alice" some of it burning in her mind, she knew that strange dreadful feeling, hearing and seeing yourself doing awful things you have no memory of. Bendy watched from over Henry's shoulder, he didn't remember much, only the emotions, as well as some flickers of the studio before everything went to hell. Everyone was afraid of him back then before, but they aren't now, is that good? Trying to think back to it made his head hurt slightly and feel all muddy, he stopped his musings when they started moving again. They soon came upon a dark room, a symbol with geometric shapes and designs was of the floor lined with lit candles, Henry avoided it like the plague, so the others did too. Chopping down the next few doors brought them to a dingy staircase that they quickly ascended, at the top was the debris that was from the caved in floor in front of the exit.

Henry was shaking with anticipation, Allison and Tom grew excited when they saw him looking much more hopeful and happy then they had ever seen him before, this was the way out.

"This is the way out, isn't it" Allison said, grinning.

Henry could only respond with a nod, too overwhelmed by the very real possibility that they are getting out once and for all. Henry passed Bendy to Norman who then carried him and they ever so slowly they made their way up the final hole, the boards and pipes still in it durable enough to be climbed on instead of using a rope. They got to the hall for the front exit, Henry nearly crying at the sight of the light peeking out beneath it, which illuminated the dark area since almost the entire floor has parts of the roof caved in and ink flowing everywhere through the cracks. Tom was covering his face, shaking and ears tucked back, Allison quickly comforted him, quite surprised her normally aggressive and protective partner was now crying. Henry reaches out and turns the doorknob.

The doorknob didn't budge.

Henry feels a pit form in his stomach and he presses his ear against the door, trying to figure out if Joey was still in the apartment. He didn't hear the radio, he didn't hear the familiar sounds of cleaning dishes. He kept his ear to the door though, everyone was dead silent, Henry was straining to hear something, anything on the other side of the door.

He heard the faint chirping of crickets and he nearly passed out from relief, he let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding. Henry then started trying to knock the door down, first trying to ram into the door with the side of his body, then trying to kick the spot next to the doorknob, and then it withstood a blow from Toms mechanical fist. Henry sat near the inky debris in defeat while the others had a shot.

Henry's mind was a thousand miles away feeling as if the world was ending, slowly he started to hear something, a calm, assured whispering. He turned his head towards the noise, standing up and reaching towards one of the streams of ink flowing over the debris, the ink started reaching up to his hand. It enveloped his hand then forming a pole, then a large curved blade, he gripped onto it as it became solid. The ink dripped away revealing an ornate scythe, golden glowing spots on the blade and grip, the handle having a spiraling wire beginning at the grip and ending at the back of the blade, he grinned the flame of hope burning brightly in his chest once more.

"OUTA THE WAY" Henry screamed, everyone cleared a path for him as he charged, eyes glowing the same gold as the scythe, and buried the scythe into the door.

The door cracks and crumbles, the doorway completely open and enveloping everyone in a blinding light, a ringing noise accompanying it.


End file.
